Dear Editor,
What an extrapolation Mr Rudi Grant makes in his letter to SN (16 Jan 09) that I was demeaning Eddy Grant’s music by a remark I made on a recent NCN interview with Wanita Huburn.
In the first place, Eddy Grant is the most successful international performer in the history of Guyana by far, and I said so explicitly on the programme. The fact that I referred to him as a popular music performer (which Rudi objects to) was done not in the vernacular but in the music business sense. Whether we like it or not (and I don’t care for it) the music business puts performers into categories. Consequently, there is an international pop music chart (indeed there is one in the USA, one in the UK, one in Australia, etc) and, for us in the Caribbean, there is a Caribbean music chart. Indeed in the Caribbean, we also have a reggae chart in some places, a soca chart, a chutney chart, and now even a groovy soca chart in Trinidad. International radio stations these days categorise us rigidly because of their formats, and it can be a crippling trap to artists, but that is simply the fact of the business. That was essentially the underpinning of my point. Wanita had asked me if Eddy had influenced me and, if not, who, and I mentioned, if I recall, Sparrow, Marley, David Rudder, Edwin Yearwood, Black Stalin, etc. She then made the point that Eddy’s music was not appreciated enough in Guyana, and I said that I didn’t know if that was so but surmised that it could possibly be because they see him as in the international pop category as opposed to the Caribbean category; Rudi sees that as demeaning.
Perhaps I could have phrased it better to say that it may be because the music business had placed him in the international category rather than in the more specific Caribbean category, but that is not a demeaning contention at all and to so suggest is frankly absurd. In fact, given the far wider scope of the international popular music scene, Eddy’s place there is a much more formidable achievement than any rating in the Caribbean or Guyana, and his success at that level proves that he is indeed a multi-dimensional artist as Rudi says.
Pardon my going on so much over what is really a semantic issue, but words can create issues when none exists.
Yours faithfully,
Dave Martins
